Long Beach has been hacked.
On Thursday, city officials confirmed the network security breach which is forcing a precautionary shutdown of some digital infrastructure. This could cause some delays for residents trying to access these systems.
“There's no indication that our city's public safety systems, such as our emergency communications center, has been impacted,” Darryl Supernaw, a Long Beach City council member, told KNX News’ Jon Baird.
City officials said the email and phone systems seem to be operating at the moment.
Hackers tend to target cities or groups for different reasons. It could be to steal data or hold it hostage for ransom, according to Dr. Clifford Newman, a cyber security expert. He said the most damage may come from the response to a cyber attack.
“In other words, the first thing that an organization is probably going to do when they discover an attack is [to] start to isolate and shut down some of their systems to prevent that attack from spreading and becoming more significant,” Newman said.
He added that the response to cyber attacks can be expensive and time-consuming.
The city didn’t comment on which data was compromised or whether or not this was a ransomware attack. Systems in Long Beach could be down through the weekend.
The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
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